The vine grafting campaign in Lanzarote, which started last Monday, will replace the Listán Negro variety with Malvasia. The company Vitícola Riojana Alavesa will be in charge of coordinating this large-scale project together with the Regulatory Council of the Designation of Origin (DO) Lanzarote and Agrovolcán, according to a statement from DO Lanzarote.
Half a dozen experts in this activity from Mexico began work on Monday and will work on the island throughout this week to carry out this project. The first time these actions were carried out was in 2008, when the El Grifo winery decided to contract these services and obtained good results in its product. This has encouraged several companies to join this project this year, such as Bodegas La Geria, Los Bermejos and the Regulatory Council, which means that a total of 30 winegrowers support these measures.
Vineyard grafting consists of inserting a bud into the trunk of the vine and then cutting the rest of the plant. It is carried out during the period of vegetative activity, so the material has been kept in the cold rooms of the Cabildo Agricultural Farm. The rods cut at the time of pruning, at the beginning of February, were hydrated for a day and then packed and labeled.
The technique used by the Mexican experts guarantees a success rate of more than 90 percent of the grafts carried out.The correct handling of a graft from the beginning of its manipulation results in the security of maintaining one hundred percent of agricultural production useful. From the first year, these grafted vines will give a production of 70 percent and in the second year it will be one hundred percent.
In this way, wineries that detect greater market possibilities in a certain variety of vine can graft it onto types that are less interesting for their clients.
